Congress wants ‘firm justification’ on grant of emergency powers

Manila Bulletin
by Myrna Velasco
September 17, 2014

President Aquino may have heeded the advice of the Department of Energy (DOE) for him to exercise ‘emergency powers’ in resolving next year’s threatening power supply, but many members of Congress are still batting for firmer justification on the proposal.

Senate committee on energy chairman Sergio Osmena III already sounded off that the ‘emergency powers option’ may come with a steep price of P15 to P20 per kilowatt hour (kWh) for the Filipino consumers.

Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla himself indicated that the leasing arrangement being propounded via the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) may involve temporary import of gensets from other countries.

The Makabayan bloc, spearheaded by Rep. Neri Colmenares, is among the group’s opposing the emergency powers recommendation primarily because the DOE cannot even present convincing figures as to the power supply outlook next year.

In the letter sent to Congress, President Aquino did not categorically cite ‘power crisis’ as the reason for his request on the passage of a joint resolution to solve next year’s electricity supply hurdles.

He just noted the report and the projections of the DOE on “critical electricity situation in the summer of 2015 arising from, among others, the expected effects of the El Nino phenomenon, the 2015 Malampaya turnaround, increased and continuing outages of power plants, and anticipated delays in the commissioning of committed power projects.”

The energy department has been citing 2013 figures as the dependable and available capacity of power plants. But on the Power Outlook it has been presenting to various stakeholders, there would be two coal-fired plants coming on-line until March 2015 which could very well plug the capacity shortfall being anticipated by the energy chief.

The coal power facilities due for commissioning are the 135-MW plant of the Trans-Asia and Ayala joint venture by latter part this year; and the 300-MW Calaca power plant expansion of the Consunji group.

Power industry players have sincere intention of helping government solve the anticipated power supply shortfalls next year, but they, too, fear whatever abuses that may come with “emergency powers” if the applications of solutions would be ill-managed.

For POWER advocacy group convenor and former Rep. Teddy Casino, “the emergency powers being requested by President Aquino from Congress to solve the projected energy shortfall appears vague, all-encompassing and therefore prone to abuse and corruption.”

He noted “we are perplexed why the President did not even indicate the amount of additional capacity to be contracted out, how it will be acquired, the expected cost to taxpayers and consumers, nor the period involved. Without these things, there can be no intelligent debate on their proposal.” source